Do you have any bitterness in your life? As a pastor attempting to shepherd our church family through a worldwide pandemic, I have had a front-row seat to many stories of sadness, heartache, and disappointment. It has been difficult to watch my brothers and sisters suffer, along with many other members of our community. Personally,Continue reading “Bitter Fruit”
Category Archives: Struggles
Depression Doesn’t Define You
I did not have a word for it until my senior year of college. Looking back, I can see it started before then, in cycles and seasons when I described myself as “down,” “in a funk,” “struggling,” “low.” My friend talked me into seeing a counselor at our college’s health center, and there I wasContinue reading “Depression Doesn’t Define You”
Why Is My Child Handicapped?
Most people would say life is hard, but there are some things that can make life feel harder and one person born with a physical handicap couldn’t help but feel that way. They once got in touch with Billy Graham to ask why God allows some people to be born with a physical handicap andContinue reading “Why Is My Child Handicapped?”
Shaking Your Fists at God
READ:Job 6:1-13 REFLECT:This may be a difficult passage for you to read today. Certainly, it’s not the‘happy’ or ‘uplifting’ kind of reading that we usually enjoy. But perhapsJob’s painful cry to God resonates with your own experience. We all gothrough times of great suffering, or we journey with friends and loved oneswho do. In thoseContinue reading “Shaking Your Fists at God”
I’ve Been Here Too Long
I am not sure why I ordered anything to eat in the first place. Anxiety had locked up my appetite. Eating seemed more of a chore than a pleasure as I sat across the table from a trusted pastor and friend, pouring out recent pains and telling him how fear had gripped nearly every areaContinue reading “I’ve Been Here Too Long”
Grief Can Make Us Better
Death is the great interrupter. Death is the great interrupter because, far more often than not, it strikes when it’s least expected. When death comes it invariably interrupts plans, dreams, projects, goals. One author observes how very sad, how very pathetic it is, when a man dies suddenly and we go into his home orContinue reading “Grief Can Make Us Better”
A Heart Can Smile When the Face Cannot
We went to visit Nick on Christmas morning. “Visit Nick”—that’s what we’ve decided to call it when we spend time at his graveside. “Going to the cemetery” focuses on the place, not the person, so is too impersonal, too abstract. “Paying our respects” is another option, but sounds too formal to describe going to theContinue reading “A Heart Can Smile When the Face Cannot”
Anticipate Your Battles
At the End of Your Rope
To say it’s been a hard season is laughable. Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. Even as the promises of Christmas, a new year and a vaccine enter our frame of reference, many of us are dealing with losses that are impossible to bear. We may feel as though we have been torn limbContinue reading “At the End of Your Rope”
Hope in a Scorched Landscape
Months before COVID-19 began its spread around the globe, I was contemplating a decision I didn’t want to make. No path was easy, no option desirable. The aftershocks have been too painful to write about, too tender to share. Some days I’ve woken in a fog, wondering How did I get here?—only to slip intoContinue reading “Hope in a Scorched Landscape”
